


Echoes

by DefiantLoon



Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Force Bond, Gen, Interrogtion scene, One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-05-11
Updated: 2016-05-11
Packaged: 2018-06-07 17:29:27
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,217
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6816754
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DefiantLoon/pseuds/DefiantLoon
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A close re-writing of the interrogation scene, as I interpreted it.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Echoes

**Author's Note:**

> I haven't written fanfiction in many, many years. So uh...be nice? Is that a dumb thing to ask on the internet?
> 
> This has probably been done before so I hope I'm not beating a dead horse. The scene struck me and I really wanted to explore the underlying emotions going on there, mainly on Kylo's part, since this is our first glimpse at him as somewhat of a human. A look into his uncertainty and fear.

Usually, there was a whisper. A quiet voice at the edge of his consciousness; something he'd assumed was the Darkness itself, guiding his every thought for as long as he could remember. Yet here, watching and thinking as his guest remained paralyzed, Kylo Ren felt his mind was remarkably quiet. Pleasantly alone, for once. This came, of course, after the first surge of emotion he relished in for a quite a while: pride, power, certainty-- things he almost never felt. He could wipe out the Jedi. In time all memory of them would be gone, and perhaps then he would no longer be haunted by voices and faces from a time long gone.

Kylo paused and stepped back away from that train of thought, settling into the silence, crouching low to observe the prisoner and go over what little he'd seen in her mind so far. Rey was a nobody. A scavenger. Wiry and malnourished, but with impressive physical strength despite her size and condition. Amusingly plucky, but still afraid. Really, deeply terrified in fact. The emotion was familiar to him, and he couldn't entirely tell if this made him feel powerful or sorry for her. Both, maybe. He needed what she had, and she was simply in the wrong place at the wrong time. Still, she hadn't intended to become involved, and that much gave him pause.

Remaining low to the floor, Kylo sought not to menace her, though he knew a degree of intimidation was probably the best starting point. Quiet as his mind was, uncertainty soon crept back in, as it was never far. Some small part of him didn't want to do this, though he recognized this as precisely the part of him that needed to die to complete his training.

He tapped back on the pride; the knowledge that he had done well and would be responsible for this great victory. It would prove he was strong enough. Exhaling, he let go of her mind.

 

The girl came to consciousness with a start. Kylo remained perfectly still, watching as she tried to move, couldn't, and then tried again. A moment of sheer panic as she began to process her sudden transportation to a different place entirely.

“Where am I?”

A bold tone of voice for someone in such a helpless position, but the fear was still noticeable.

“You're my guest,” he replied simply.

She ignored the quip and immediately demanded another answer. “Where are the others?”

Underneath the mask, Kylo wrinkled his nose at the thought.

“You mean the murderers, traitors, and thieves you call friends?” He paused and tasted the bitterness in his voice, realized these were all words to describe himself. Yes, well. Some reasons were better than others. “You'll be relieved to hear I have no idea.”

There was a long silence. The girl swallowed. Her relief was in fact palpable, but short-lived. Almost imperceptibly, he glanced over her thoughts and found a frustration that threatened to break her down. Tears welled in her eyes, yet she felt deeply ashamed at the thought of crying in front of him. She was supposed to be stronger than this; she'd survived on her own for so long.

Kylo tilted his head slightly, expressing a hint of surprise at the violence of her emotions.

“You still want to kill me?”

Interesting. Even with all that fear. Rey swallowed again, blinked the tears back, summoned what bravery she could.

“That happens when you're being hunted by a creature in a mask.”

The word 'creature' reverberated in Kylo's mind. Fine, then. He had nothing to prove to her. Even at his most vulnerable, he was still far less helpless than she.

As surprisingly confident as he felt, his heartbeat still raced as he took the mask off. It was something he rarely did, even when he was alone. The girl stared back at him, surprised-- why? Because he was not the monster he should appear to be? He let this sink in. After a time, her eyes dropped to the floor. Nothing more to say. He put the mask down and moved toward her with slow, deliberate steps.

“Tell me about the droid.”

Rey gave the tiniest jump at the sound of his unfiltered voice. She quickly recovered her composure, held up her defiance like a shield, and listlessly droned out, “He's a BB unit with a selenium drive and a thermal hyperscan vindicator--”

Annoyance threatened to take him for a brief second before he cut her off.

“It's carrying a section of a navigational chart. We have the rest, recovered from the archives of the Empire, but we need the last piece. And somehow you convinced the droid to show it to you.” He paused and, for a moment, let his annoyance show. He needed to dampen her resistance.

“You,” he said mockingly. “A scavenger.”

The word had an effect. Perhaps he was a creature, but he implied she was lower than even that, and it seemed that she began to believe it. Kylo sensed this weakness and thought to move in with fear, but a twinge of sympathy hovered over him like an insect. He hesitated. Her wave of embarrassment sat heavily inside his mind's grasp. His own self-loathing fought him for a moment and he tried one last time to get her to comply on her own-- to make her see that giving him the map was truly her best option. In a way, he wanted her to give up for both their sakes.

“You know I can take whatever I want.”

A new sort of trepidation came over her. Her eyes widened slightly, unsure of what exactly he meant. Internally, he admitted to hoping that this would be quick and painless from here out. He raised one hand and brought it inches from her face. She winced at the sudden movement and turned her head.

Kylo came to the threshold between his consciousness and hers, and stepped over it unceremoniously. His light tap on the surface of her mind was now a much deeper push through her thoughts, gracelessly touching everything and turning it over.

He leaned down until he was level with her, watching her squeeze her eyes shut through the pain, his hand still hovering as he searched. Ah, and her weaknesses were all too easy for him to find. When he moved into them, her memories and feelings seemed to immediately infect his own state of mind. Almost losing sight of his objective, he observed her darkest moments with interest and showed her just how deeply he understood them-- how far in her mind he was. So far that he felt it himself; crippling loneliness, desolation, uncertainty.

“You're so alone...so afraid to leave.”

The pity in his voice was genuine, but he felt her respond to it with more shame. She clenched her teeth, unable to hold the tears back any longer.

Strangely, he became aware that both his voice and his use of the Force were becoming gentle under the weight of what she felt, the fingers of his consciousness delicately opening up parts of hers and looking in, as if examining a wound.

“At night...desperate to sleep...”

There. Such an innocent little reach for comfort; he couldn't help feeling rather endeared by it. He almost smiled just a little, watching the peaceful scene come into view, warm and calm.

“You imagine an ocean. I see it.” He felt that bit of comfort reach him and slip more softness into his voice. “I see the island.”

Where he went next immediately threw a shadow over him, making him press back into his own thoughts.

“And Han Solo.” The man in her memory evoked feelings of a pure and admirable bond. “He's like the father you never had.”

To her the memory was sweet and safe, but it made his stomach turn. Through his anger he gave an almost inaudible, mirthless laugh.

“He would have disappointed you.”

Finally on the brink of her tolerance, every inch of her body trying to push back against the mental invasion, Rey hissed, “Get out of my head.”

 _Enough_ _playing_ _...now we can begin._ Kylo stepped back, hand still raised as he prepared to go deeper. Rey's breath hitched.

“I know you've seen the map. It's in there. And now,” his voice was matter-of-fact, “you'll give it to me.”

Without further delay, he easily pushed further in and began searching in earnest, passing by images and sounds and voices, entirely focused on what he needed. The map. Luke Skywalker. The end of the Jedi and the Light.

Something distracted him. His will was piercing; a big black spot that swallowed whatever came near it, the disruption making her physically shake. Yet Kylo was surprised to find that her consciousness felt so similar to his. He'd seen in her what he least expected: an intense sense of betrayal, a potent hatred for the people who held her down. There was Dark here. But she despised it and feared it, when it was such a consolation to him.

“Don't be afraid.” He didn't feel entirely in control of what he was saying, the surprise evident in his voice. “I feel it too.”

Trying to come back to focus, resisting the urge to explore this similarity further, he suddenly noticed that his search was becoming more difficult, as if her mind was clouding over with a thick fog.

With great effort the scavenger breathed back, “I'm not giving you anything.”

More bold words, but not with much to back them up. He would have laughed if this wasn't starting to feel tiresome...almost wrong.

“We'll see.” He pushed harder.

And met nothing. A solid wall that stopped his power cold. Disbelieving, Kylo pushed again with greater strength, waiting for a slight give. Rey gasped in a breath and held it, head lifted from the rack that held her. She'd crack. Just a moment longer. He would _not_ fail here. Still, he wasn't prepared for such resistance coming from this little waif in rags.

There was a shift. He felt the change, something loosening, but it wasn't what he was looking for. The fear melted from her face. The front of confidence became genuine fearlessness as she leaned toward him as far as her restraints allowed. Something touched his mind, shocking it, sending a jolt of pain through his head.

“You,” she growled. “You're afraid.”

No. _What?_

He felt her consciousness as before, but no longer as an outsider looking in. It grabbed onto his mind and held it like a weapon, pinning him down, suffocating his power. Panic rose in his chest, all-consuming and paralyzing. Before he could fully realize what was happening, she yanked out the most obvious thing she could find, like pulling frayed wires from a broken machine.

“That you will never be as strong as Darth Vader.”

Kylo inhaled sharply, arm snapping back to his side, recoiling as if she'd knocked out his teeth. He stumbled backward, forgetting for a moment that she was restrained. The pressure dissipated, the back-and-forth pull released into the air. Rey breathed heavily but kept her eyes on him, firm, knowing. He stared back. This whole time, that raw power was lurking beneath her while he mocked and prodded and belittled her. How could he have not felt it before? Did he bring this out from the depths of her mind?

Kylo turned and all but ran from the room, barking an order to the nearest stormtrooper to go in and watch her.

The Supreme Leader would find out either way. How was he supposed to say this? That he not only failed to retrieve the map from the girl, but that she was strong with the Force and he failed to see it, that she stood against his power and threw it back, despite having no training whatsoever. A lifetime spent perfecting his ability to infiltrate a mind, and the scavenger learned it in minutes.

Worse, she'd seen his fear. She'd seen what kept him up at night-- the Light reaching for him, weakening him, reminding him that the wall surrounding his mind was cracked. The fear that he could never be strong enough to fully resist the call. That he'd given up his entire life, only to fail. Walking through the cold corridors of the Base, his mind raced. The remaining shock-waves of her intrusion still pulsed through him. He had a sense of dread knowing she was still there.

Kylo stopped, the sound of his footfalls echoing and then disappearing into the hall. Inside of his fear and shock he began to feel something different, and he realized then that as much as her push back had jarred him, he wanted to feel it again. To test it. To wield it.

He'd stumbled upon something far more valuable than he ever thought he'd find in a prisoner. He recalled his own raw power in his youth and thought of how hers could grow, could be fine tuned into a powerful weapon _._ But for now, he needed that map. Humiliation at the thought of his failure almost froze him in place, and he quickly pushed it off, renewing his determination.

_I can get the map. Then we'll deal with the girl._


End file.
